Local Business

Alberta’s only large-scale hog processor has a future in Red Deer despite the near collapse of Canada’s swine industry, says the chair of Alberta Pork.

The gap between the pace of housing starts in 2009 versus 2008 continues to narrow.Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported on Monday work began on 69 new homes in the city last month. That’s up from 42 last October. It’s the fifth consecutive month that residential construction activity has exceeded that from the same period in 2008.

One million acres.That’s the lofty goal the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission has set for the fall-seeded crop that it represents. And although the 2009 tally was only about 260,000 acres, Rick Istead thinks the seven-digit target is achievable.

Charles Strachey is seeing something new on Service Canada’s Job Bank these days: positions in the Red Deer region for oilpatch, manufacturing and construction workers.

From each contented cow comes 19, two-litre jugs of milk per day. Just imagine, then, the production from an operation the size of Morsan Farms, which routinely milks 1,300 cows on its two farms: 850 at Ponoka and 450 more in Saskatchewan.

Sylvia Starchuk readies a display of the six free cards for Canadian troops at the Hallmark Canada store in Southpointe Common. Hallmark Canada is introducing a line of six Canadian Heroes cards for members of Canada’s armed forces. The cards will be free between Nov. 9 and 11 at all Hallmark Gold Crown stores across Canada to encourage Canadians to write to troops, even if they don’t know someone stationed overseas.

Canola producers who tried to squeeze a few extra weeks of ripening weather out of Mother Nature this fall could find themselves harvesting next spring.

In a man’s world, haircuts would be impulse decisions and an opportunity to sip beer and watch televised sports.

The 2009 Red Deer Kinsmen Dream Home is “a beautiful home that’s not typical,” says Kinsmen Dream Home chair Craig Kinney.

A farm and construction equipment dealership chain with roots in Red Deer is expanding its operations. Cervus Equipment Corp. (TSX-V: CVL) announced on Friday that it has agreed to acquire the shares of A.R. Williams Materials Handling Ltd